Saturday, December 30, 2006

Politics: Religion: Stoning the Devil / Saddam on the Hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudia Arabia

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Associated Press via Jerusalem Post, "Hajj pilgrims symbolicly stone the devil, Saddam" (Dec30,2k6)

Mina, Saudi Arabia--Huge crowds of Muslims hurled pebbles at stone walls representing the devil in a purging ritual of the hajj pilgrimage Saturday, as Saudi Arabia criticized Iraq for executing Saddam Hussein during the holy rites.

News of Saddam's hanging before dawn quickly reached pilgrims, many of them notified by relatives at home by mobile phone or text message.

A group of Iraqi Shiites passed around the news with joy as they walked to the three stone walls that they pelt with stones in a symbolic rejection of Satan.

"Today we were stoning the devil, but we were also stoning Saddam," said Sayed Hassan Moussawi, an Iraqi Shiite cleric. "Everyone here is so happy. He killed so many men, women and children and he tormented Iraq's Shiites."
At the same time, the Iranian hajjis are politicizing the pilgrimage to their own ends.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Iran seeks to use the haj for political gain [Yaakov BenZvi, Jerusalem Post]

Arab hajjis enraged by Saddam hanging [CNN]

Friday, December 29, 2006

Juridics: Iraq: Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) has been executed by hanging, after a year-long trial

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The news has been spreading thru-out the world, but it has yet to produce signs of its impact in Iraq itself as the country awakes for the day. Many political questions already swirl in speculation.

-- Politicarp

More Info:

Saddam: the end
Dictator Who Ruled Iraq With Violence Is Hanged for Crimes Against Humanity

Politics: Northern Ireland: Can Sinn Fein acccept NI's largely-protestant police force?

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BBC's news out of Northern Ireland tells us "Sinn Fein backs police conference--Policing has been a dividing issue between the DUP and Sinn Fein" (Dec29,2k6). The DUP is the Democratic Unionist Party, a party whose parliamentarians are in good part evangelical Christians led by Rev Dr Ian Paisley. Sinn Fein is the Irish Republican party that draws Catholic voters, and for a long time served as the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, a terrorist group. Protestant counter-terrorists have been disowned by DUP. Now the crucial issue is whether Sinn Fein can fully accept the Northern Ireland police, largely composed of Protestants.



The Sinn Fein leadership has voted for a special party conference in January on the issue of whether to support policing in Northern Ireland.

Speaking after talks in Dublin, party president Gerry Adams said the meeting would be held if the two governments [UK and Republic of Ireland] and the DUP gave a positive response.

The move was welcomed by Downing Street and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern [head of the Republic's govt and leading party].

Sinn Fein support for policing would be viewed as removing one of the main obstacles to restoring devolution.

More than two-thirds of [Sinn Fein's] executive voted in favour of the meeting.

The party has historically opposed recognising the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and its predecessor the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), because of what it sees as a Protestant bias within the service.

'Potential' recognised

The DUP - the largest party in Northern Ireland - has previously refused to speak to Sinn Fein until it recognises and accepts the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Speaking after the Sinn Fein vote on Friday evening, DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said it would be "churlish not to acknowledge the potential" of the steps taken by the republicans.

But he warned that unionists would have to study Sinn Fein's words and actions carefully. ...

Speaking after the six-hour meeting of the executive, Mr Adams said the debate was "frank, comradely and robust".

"I put a motion to the party leadership and the party leadership endorsed that by more than the two thirds majority," he said.
Europe > UK > Northern Ireland
Mr Adams said he would now be engaged in efforts to deal with concerns among republicans over the proposals.

"I am totally wedded to the idea of every single person who wants to be part of this debate, being part of the debate, because it's about the future, it's about the type of Ireland we want to see."

Sinn Fein said the motion put forward would include a commitment to "actively encourage everyone in the community to co-operate fully with the police services in tackling crime in all areas and actively supporting all the criminal justice institutions".

BBC Ireland correspondent Denis Murray said the key for the DUP would be "delivery".

'Important step'

Mr Ahern welcomed the Sinn Fein executive's "landmark and timely decision".

"Sinn Fein has today taken an important step on the road to support for policing in Northern Ireland," he said.

A Downing Street spokesman said there was now, for the first time, "the real prospect of all parties and all sections of the community in Northern Ireland supporting the rule of law in Northern Ireland".

"This statement is significant because of the unequivocal support that Sinn Fein says it will offer - if this motion is passed at the ard fheis - to not just the police but also to those in communities who report crimes to the police," the spokesman added.

Alex Attwood, Social Democratic Labour Party spokesman, said: "Sinn Fein now appear to be backing out of the wrong position they've adopted on policing over the last number of years...

"Everybody including the DUP should now consider acting quickly and positively to the situation that's developing."

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said Sinn Fein had "lost the battle on policing".

Alliance Party leader David Ford said: "Some of us have been waiting for this since 1998. It's long overdue but nonetheless welcome."

The British and Irish governments have named 7 March as the date for fresh assembly elections, with a new executive expected to be up and running by 26 March.

Talks aimed at restoring the assembly and its executive have been taking place since the St Andrews Agreement negotiations in November.
Our prayers are with the people and leaders of the political forces of Norther Ireland.

--Politicarp

Thursday, December 28, 2006

War: Horn of Africa: Somalia govt backed by invading Ethiopian troops drives Sharia Islamists from Mogadishu

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For those of us who have been following the emergence of the Islamic Courts to bring Sharia Law to Somalia, their displacement of the warlords, then their takeover of the civic order so as to displace the tenuous hold of the shakey democraqcy of the transitional government of the counrty, the blast of war, another layer added onto the preceding miseries, has been seen with the arrival of Ethopia to the defense of the Somalia transitional govt.

Ethiopia has internal reasons for thinking it had to help the non-warloard, non-Sharia forces of Somalia's would-be democratic govt. The most salient reason for Ethiopia's intevention is the fact that historically-Christian Ethiopia, after a vicious takeover by totalitarian Communists who were ousted in bloddy turmoil, now is demographic realities of a 50-50 split between the more-or-less Christian half of its populatoin and the rising number of Muslims. Were Sharia forces in alliance with Taliban-like radcial Wahabbists to seize Somaliland, then their ethnic cousins and fellow Muslims in Ethiopia itself mite try to secede in those regions of Ethiopia where Somalis predominate.

Africa > Somalia & Ethiopia

Reuters reporter Guled Mohamed tells us "Ethiopia-backed troops march into Mogadishu," the Somali capital (Dec28,2k6). The text of his article tells us further that the troops, in the first instance, are those of the legally constituted and internationally recognixed Somali Transitional Government, which at least technically the Ethiopians are only "supporting."

Nearby Eritrea is said to support the Somalia Islamic Courts Council. But the deeper background seems to be Al Quaeda, as indicated by the public support given the SICC govt by Al Quaeda in Iraq.

--Politicarp

More Info:

Islamist fighters abandon posts as troops move in
Ethiopia Pledges Troop Withdrawal From Somalia Within Weeks

Politics: Sanctions: Iran's nuclear ambitions sanctioned adversely and unanimously by UN; and, for what its worth, by most of us

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In a commentary yesterday, Christian Science Monitor expressed its view, purposefully joining what it considers to be an unparalleled chorus that now includes a unanimous 15-0 UN Security Council resolution to impose what may be called "Sanctions Lite" but sanctions indeed against mullocratic Iran's bid for dominance thru its nuke program with its uranium-enrichment feature and its possible use for military purposes. Even Iran's idea of having nukes at its disposal henceforth has a military purpose in the sense embedded in Iran's conscious intention to intimidate the states in the region, like the Gulf States, those especially with Sunni Muslim denominationality, rather than Shiite (Iran, Iraq, Hamas in Lebanon) or Sufi (the Darfur Black Muslim rebels against the Sudan govt which is Sunni along with Suadiland, Jordan, and Egypt). The Sudan govt and its camel-borne janjaweed killing squads that ravage the Black Sufis of Darfur. Yes, even the refugees being exterminated by the Sudan Sunnis factor into the Shiite struggle to displace the Wahabist Sunnis, the former centerd in Iran and precisely in Iran's quest for nuclear dominance in the region with membership in the nuclear club." Meanwhile the Sunnis themselves diverge into the state-orthodoxy of the Saudi regime's Wahabbism which is the Sunni epicenter in control of the Pilgrimage City of Mecca, and the maverick Wahabbist warriors of Al Quaeda and the Taliban. But back to the Monitor's View -- "The world speaks on Iran's threat" (Dec27,2k6).

What a long 27 years it's been. But on Saturday, the US finally won UN support to isolate Iranian leaders, whose 1979 Islamic revolution has become nuclear intimidation. The UN sanctions are mild, however, reflecting new US patience.
MidEast > Iran isolated by UN
What wasn't mild in the Security Council's move against Tehran's nuclear program is the fact that the vote was unanimous. Even China and Russia were on board, despite investments in Iranian energy projects. To the US, that 15-0 vote was more important than strong UN sanctions.

This message of isolation [of Iran] comes nearly five years after President Bush placed Iran on an "axis of evil" for its hand in international terrorism. That initial, post-9/11 squaring off, however, has been sobered up by US missteps in Iraq and Europe's moves to prevent unilateral US actions. Perhaps it was also intelligence reports that Iran may be years away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon.
Despite all the ins and outs of the Iraq War on Hussein's Terrorism, and the preemptive effort to prevent a linking of Al Queda with Hussein (which would have been the radical Sunni juggernaut, nevertheless the isolation of Iran is a watershed achievement for President George W. Bush in international diplomacy and foreign policy (so ably pursued by Secretary Condoleeza Rice), few newspapers and other newsmedia have had the courage to say so.

-- Politicarp

Further Research:

UN votes for trade sanctions on Iran over nuclear fears
Iran: Missile industry won’t be hurt by sanctions

--

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Merry Christmas everybody!

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Merry Christmas grphc (Dec24,2k6)

Pisteutics: Social semiotics: Christmastree vending Iraq, Christmastree banning Canada & USA

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In her award-winnable article "Keeping Christmas Alive on a Baghdad Street Corner--
Perils Fail to Deter Lone Tree Vendor," Nancy Trejos of Washington Post
(Dec24,2k6) explores the anti-Christian opppression in Iraq around the image of the Muslim vendor of Christmas trees in Baghdad; while CTV.com explores the anti-Christian suppresson of the image of Christmas trees in public places in Canada, not to mention the USA.

Our example of that North Amertican movement comes from Toronto, Ontario, Canada--for the purpose of showing we are in the face of an idea, an ideology and an ideological jurisprudence that reduces the North American majority religion with its cultural symbiosis intertwined to a general North American culture with Christian overtones over centuries of history, reduces the latter majority religion and its semiotic practices--reduces all this to being just one other among a wide range of religions down to a legion of tiny sects with arcane discourses and sometimes questionable semiotes.

Protesters want Christmas tree judge removed
A controversial courthouse Christmas tree has Ontario's Attorney General saying people should just "take a Valium" over the issue. But public anger continued on the courthouse steps Friday.

Justice Marion Cohen ordered the small tree removed from the lobby of Toronto's Jarvis Street courtroom earlier in December. She said the Christmas decoration "confronted" non-Christians visiting the courthouse, making them feel excluded.

The tree was moved to a back corridor among the courthouse's administrative offices, sparking a public outcry and even attracting criticism from Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Bryant said he hopes cooler heads will prevail.

But outside the courthouse Friday morning a small group of protesters carried signs saying the tree's removal is "intolerant."

Protester Bob Flores came from Oakville, Ont. to say he wants Cohen removed from her job.

"We're requesting the removal of Judge Cohen," Flores said through a megaphone on the Jarvis Street sidewalk.

"Judge Cohen is a mean judge. She doesn't belong in a court of justice."

But that doesn't square with people who know Cohen. Colleagues and friends told the Toronto Star that her decision to move the tree was done with the best of intentions.
We can't help feel the judge with good intentions is in the grip of a nonsensical and ahistorical outlook upon the tasks of the law in a Christian-developed secular society with room for all, but demographic inequality.

--Politicarp

Friday, December 22, 2006

Genocide: Darfur: Today's summary of USA diplomatic efforts to end the genocide of Black Sufi Muslims

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excerpt from transcript of
USA State Dept. Daily Press Briefing (Dec21,2k6)
Press Release: US State Department
Daily Press Briefing
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
December 21, 2006

QUESTION: Sudan. The Government of Sudan has launched an offensive in Darfur just the day the UN envoy arrived in Khartoum. Do you have any comment on that?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't have specific information on the offensive that you mentioned, Sylvie. But there's been a lot of violence and there's been an upsurge in the level of violence in Darfur and that's of grave concern to us as well as others around the globe. We are working very hard, as you heard from the Secretary yesterday, to try to move this process forward to get peacekeepers -- not peacekeepers -- to get an Africa Union UN force into Darfur. We have not -- the international community has not been successful in that regard as of yet.

We have seen an increasing intensity of the international participation and focus on this issue and that's good and we welcome that. So we hope that with that concerted diplomatic effort we can impress upon the Government of Sudan the importance of implementing the Darfur Peace Agreement, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and most importantly and immediately, implementing the Addis Ababa understandings that relate to implementation of [UN] Resolution 1706.

Yes, ma'am.
I also found the following newsitem summary on Daily Digest:
n his last official news conference, outgoing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that more could be done in Darfur: "There are measures short of force that could be used: political pressure, economic sanctions, isolation, and of course in the last resort, there is the use of force." The Bush administration must quickly move from words to real actions. Maximum political and diplomatic pressure should be used at all possible points to force Sudan to accept additional peacekeepers. Key Security Council members, especially Russia and China, are obstructing U.N. action; the U.S. needs to increase its efforts to gain their cooperation. And additional actions should be taken against Sudan, including targeted sanctions against top government officials while enforcing existing sanctions. During the recent visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Washington, he and the president discussed measures that included a no-fly zone over Darfur and a possible naval blockade.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, let us keep in our hearts, our prayers, and our actions the people of Darfur, Iraq, and everywhere in this troubled world where there is no peace. Their lives may depend on us.
On this, Annan comes off better than the USA State Department, sad to say.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

200 Darfur rebels killed in fresh attack: Sudan army
SaveDarfur organization and petiton to Prez Bush

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Politics: Elections Iran: Hardliners down, other factions lead in municipal elections in Iran

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Associated Press reports in a dispatch from Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, athat "Ahmadinejad Opponents Win Elections" (Dec21,2k6). A development which is good news to our ears here at refWrite. But old-hand re Iran, Michael Ledeen will have none of it. Meanwhile, the veto-powers on the UN Security Council claim they are about to agree on a resolution of sanctions against Iran for its nukes-adventurism.

Politicarp

Further Research:

Facts about sham election in Iran
Iran is manufacturing four civil wars in MidEast

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Economics: USA: Marijuana leads farm commodities corn and wheat as major cash crop

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According to a report in Reuters, journalist David Aledander has got the goods in his article "Marijuana top U.S. cash crop, policy analyst says" (Dec19,2k6):

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters Life!) - U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released on Monday.

The report, conducted by Jon Gettman, a public policy analyst and former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also concluded that five U.S. states produce more than $1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington.

California's production alone was about $13.8 billion, according to Gettman, who waged an unsuccessful six-year legal battle to force the government to remove marijuana from a list of drugs deemed to have no medical value.

Tom Riley, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, said he could not confirm the report's conclusions on the size of the country's marijuana crop. But he said the government estimated overall U.S. illegal drug use at $200 billion annually.

Gettman's figures were based on several government reports between 2002 and 2005 estimating the United States produced more than 10,000 metric tons of marijuana annually.

He calculated the producer price per pound of marijuana at $1,606 based on national survey data showing retail prices of between $2,400 and $3,000 between 2001 and 2005.

The total value of 10,000 metric tons of marijuana at $1,606 per pound would be $35.8 billion.
Anyone interested in this topic will want to click up the article and read its lengthy continuation. While these findings are mostly estimates by an apparently interested party, there's little doubt, with margins for error, that the US is playing a game of prohibition with marijuana, yet favouring its chief competitor as drug of choice--namely, alcoholic beverages. Why alcohol producers are given a privileged position on the market for so-called leisure drugs, is scandalous initself. In that alcohol triggers far more violence than does marijuana (which induces sleep, not drunken violence), it seems clear that the entire pro-alcohol policy needs to be questioned. What's more, alocohol is far more addictive than is marijuana, and claims to the contrary are spurious.

--Owlb

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Genocide: Darfur, Sudan: Situation worsens for refugees, Darfurian way of life nears total destruction

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Christianity Today reporter Tony Carnes inquires, "Does Darfur Have a Prayer? Genocide in western Sudan proves nearly impossible to stop" (Dec13,2k6).

Almost every day for 12 months, Dan Teng'o, a Christian relief worker from Kenya, talked with violence-fleeing refugees from Darfur in the western region of Sudan. All too often, he said, gaunt refugees arrived at border camps too weak to do much more than sound out a few words.
Related articles and links

"A day or two after their arrival in July at the Otash camp near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, most of the refugees couldn't even stand up. Some couldn't project their voice," Teng'o said.

"I have seen suffering. But nothing like this. It has changed my life. I don't take anything for granted anymore." Teng'o, associated with World Vision, is among a global vanguard of evangelicals working for comprehensive peace in Sudan. Beyond the humanitarian concerns, evangelicals have pressed for full religious freedom for Sudanese Christians facing one of the world's most extreme Islamic states.

In Washington, evangelical leaders have kept Darfur as a high priority. In a costly media campaign, a new group called Evangelicals for Darfur lobbied George W. Bush with full-page newspaper ads, telling him, "Without you, Mr. President, Darfur doesn't have a prayer."

At a press teleconference, Southern Baptist Richard Land called for a multinational force with "military teeth" that can "defy the genocidal government in Khartoum if necessary." Sojourners' Jim Wallis warned, "If security collapses, the aid groups will have to leave."

This brutal conflict is poised to enter its fifth year in February. The Islamic government of Sudan has ignored demands from Darfurians, mainly black Africans, for a fair share of development aid. There are long-standing ethnic and economic tensions between Sudan's Arabs and Darfur's black Africans. Darfur had autonomy until British rule in 1916.

The conflict reached a turning point in April 2003 with the rebels' successful attack on al Fashir, a garrison town in north Darfur. In response, the government unleashed local Arab nomads who conducted a scorched-earth strategy. These militias, armed by the government, have burned hundreds of villages, causing the death of up to 400,000 and the displacement of 1.9 million. The ongoing conflict has fueled the growth of rebel groups and more fighting. Arab militias are popularly called janjaweed ("devil-riding gunslingers"), and the janjaweed label the region's black Africans as "slaves" or "hyenas." When janjaweed capture rebel soldiers, they often castrate them before execution. They also rape refugee women who leave their camps to collect firewood.

Stopping the Slaughter

On September 19, President Bush, facing political pressure to stop the genocidal slaughter, appointed Andrew Natsios, former head of usaid, as his special envoy to Sudan.

Less than a month later, Natsios showed up at Darfur's Otash camp. In the camps, he said, "people are so enraged." Unlike other high-profile visitors, Natsios, a former World Vision executive, has been to Sudan seven times.

He talked with a few of the 10,500 new arrivals who in October joined the 53,000 already there. The lines at the medical clinic were long. Emaciated children, some with malaria and orange-tinted hair, gave silent witness to serious malnutrition and near starvation.

International aid agencies, many of them faith-based, have made strong headway this year in providing emergency relief to 3.7 million out of 6 million Darfurians. Still, some 13 percent of the children are malnourished, slightly below the 15 percent that is considered the threshold for a famine emergency.

Natsios' mandate is to get a U.N. force of 23,000, as outlined in a September U.N. resolution, into Darfur to protect civilians, since the existing African Union force has been too weak to stop the violence. Natsios said Sudan, as an alternative, could allow the African Union force to be increased and to be "blue-helmeted" as U.N. peacekeepers. Natsios told Christianity Today, "From my perspective, [the alternative] would be an ideal option. At this point, the Sudanese government doesn't agree to this. I think we can change their mind." Right now, there are 7,000 lightly armed African Union troops in Darfur. But only a few A.U. troops intervene outside the 100-plus refugee camps, and they are scheduled to withdraw December 31.

Sudan's president, Omar al Bashir, shows few signs of changing his opposition to U.N. troops. Recently, Sudan kicked out U.N. envoy Jan Pronk, and President Bashir refused to meet with Natsios in October. He also publicly criticized aid groups and the news media for conspiring against his government. Regarding the role of outsiders in Darfur, Bashir told the British Guardian newspaper, "We have no objection to the African Union increasing its troops, strengthening its mandate, or receiving logistical support" from the Arab League, the European Union, or the U.N. He said he would allow a force of up to 17,000.

Recently, President Bashir, facing persistent international pressure, signed peace accords with rebels in Sudan's eastern and southern regions. In the meantime, Bashir has courted stronger economic ties to China. This new relationship provides Sudan with a tough political patron with veto power in the U.N. Security Council. In the past 10 years, trade between China and Sudan has grown enormously, as China seeks new sources of crude oil and Sudan seeks new weapons. Looking at the oil trade between Sudan and China, Natsios said, "Without that revenue, there would be no war." Administration sources told CT that U.S. Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson has convened a joint U.S.-China committee to address emerging tensions resulting from Sudan's growing trade in crude oil.

Flush with billions in oil income, Sudan has gone on a shopping spree for weapons—some of which rebels steal and use against government forces. According to one estimate, 60 percent of new income goes for weaponry, including arms from China.

Many injured refugees bear the "Chinese mark," a wound from a 122-grain bullet of an AK-47 that China sells to Sudan. One disgusted U.S. agent intimately familiar with the janjaweed methods said to CT, "How do they shoot women and children?" He said janjaweed shoot slow-footed, unarmed civilians with light, high-velocity rounds—no marksmanship necessary.

Sounds of Survival

With more than 510,000 in camps, relief groups help Darfurians regain as ordinary a life as possible. Teng'o, now enrolled at an American university, told CT that joyful sounds of weddings and family celebrations are making a slow comeback despite the austere camp environments.

Last July, Jamila, 15, arrived at Otash camp with her two sisters, ages 4 and 6, after escaping attackers who surrounded her village, Deraba. Teng'o commented, "When the attack is from all directions, they come to kill, loot, and burn property."

Jamila could speak when she got to camp, but she seemed confused and stared into space. Teng'o said, "Sometimes, she goes into deep thoughts. She stands quietly, motionless."

Workers offered to teach her a skill—maybe making pasta. Darfurians love pasta, a dish left over from the Italian influence in East Africa. The trade in pasta will last as long as foreign relief workers, hungry for familiar food, remain to protect the camps. When asked what she really wanted last July, Jamila stayed silent until finally saying, "I want peace."

Darfur has been likened to the American Wild West, African-style, with nomadic camel-riding herders. In South Darfur, farmers of different tribes fought with each other over boundaries and brides, and over matters of honor and water. A generation ago, the conflicts were mostly local, uniting Darfurians in a cultural interplay of honor lost, conflict, and honor regained. Darfurians would sing about a plentiful land with lions, giraffes, gazelle, and abundant waters.

Now, the lions and giraffes are all but gone. The janjaweed roam up and down the region shooting, raping, and burning. Honor is gone. Moral boundaries have been thrown out of kilter. Local conflicts, previously resolved through tribal mediation, have spun into a national conflagration of war, genocide, banditry, and racist politics.

Over time, migration has changed the ethnic makeup of Darfur. More black Africans have been trekking into Darfur, so that today they number up to 65 percent of all the people there. Arab nomads have fewer places to graze their herds of camels and cattle.

Religious differences also contribute to the tense climate. Most Darfurians practice Sufism, a mystical expression of Islam. But Sudan's national leaders are Sunni Arab Muslims and are closely linked to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, a wellspring of terrorism in the Middle East. A few democratic Sudanese intellectuals charge that government forces use extreme Islamic propaganda laced with Arab racism to spur conflict in Darfur.

Sharing a Stake in Peace

Natsios, during a lengthy interview with CT, said his strategy for peace rests on establishing the benefits of peace for all parties with a stake in Darfur.

For example, African rebels are committed to fighting because they have lost land and livestock. Natsios said, "A huge amount of property has been looted from the African tribes. They don't have banks in Darfur, but the people have their land and camels, which also have been taken from them. I would estimate that the tribes lost at least 2 million camels."

The Sudanese government may need peace, too, after suffering several stunning military defeats this past summer. Natsios said he explained to Sudanese rulers that they're not going to defeat the rebels. "They think there's going to be a military solution. I think they're terribly wrong."

A peace settlement must also address environmental problems. "The Sahara Desert is moving south. So, in northern Darfur, if we don't go [get] water, there isn't going to be anybody else there but the Sahara Desert." Natsios said that the U.S. government is urging both sides to make peace. "There is a lot of water underneath the sands of northern Darfur. The U.S. government is prepared to help. But we've got to have peace."

While the diplomats talk, the sound of AK-47 gunfire and burning villages crackles across the African savannah. Young children wander through enormous border camps, searching for their parents, siblings, or any familiar face. One grandmother cares for 26 orphans.

This year, 12 humanitarian workers have been killed. Many of them were Sudanese nationals transporting food and water into the region.

In one of the camps that Teng'o visited, he found children taking solace in poetry.

Wala al-Sheikh, a young Sudanese, reflected on the refugees and his own plight:

I am a leader in silence
by pain and misery,
When I stop and think about my land,
When they try to tell me
there is no war,
I'd like to send them to Darfur,
To see the war with the hen
for a shell of protein.
CT carries numerous related articles worth the attention of refWrite readers.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Darfur refugees refuse UN effort to reclocate them
Dec21 update

Politics: Protesters: Russia puts down major protest in Moscow drawing people from far outside capital

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Breitbart carries an AP report by Maria Danilova from Moscow, "Hundreds Detained Ahead of Moscow Rally" (Dec16,2k6):

Russian authorities pulled hundreds of opposition activists off buses and trains and detained them along with scores of others on Saturday ahead of a rare anti-government rally in Moscow, organizers said.

The police action did not prevent more than 2,000 people from gathering in a central square, where leftist and liberal groups demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin stop what they called Russia's retreat from democracy.

"In 15 months political power will be changed," said Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister who is now an opposition leader, referring to the March 2008 presidential election.

"Next year everyone should make a personal decision about what to do with our country _ whether we allow these people to continue their illegal undertakings ... or we finally make our main goal to build a democratic and socially oriented state," Kasyanov told demonstrators.

Garry Kasparov, the former chess grand master who has emerged as one of the Kremlin's most prominent critics, said the mere fact that the rally took place made it a success, given the efforts by authorities to stop it.

"We are protesting and it means that authorities are not as monolithic and powerful" as they believe, he said. "They are afraid that one day we will tell them 'enough.'"

The demonstrators chanted "Freedom" and held banners reading "No to Police State" and "Russia Without Putin."

Since he took office in 2000, Putin has taken steady, gradual steps to centralize power and eliminate democratic checks and balances.

He has created an obedient parliament, abolished direct gubernatorial elections, tightened restrictions on rights groups and presided over the elimination of most opposition voices from the media, especially the television networks.
Russia > Protesters
The demonstration, organized by the Other Russia movement and other opposition groups, had originally planned to march down a main Moscow avenue. City authorities banned the march, allowing only the rally.

Organizers had vowed to conduct the march in defiance of the ban. But Natalya Morar, spokesman for Other Russia said police and defense troops had sealed off Triumfalnaya Square _ the scene of the protest _ and lined the avenue.

An AP photographer saw more than 1,000 law enforcement officers in full riot gear, some with police dogs, cordoning off the Triumfalnaya Square. Moscow residents complained the city was flooded with police and troops.

About 80 protesters, including Ivan Starikov, a senior member of the liberal Union of Right Forces, were detained in Moscow throughout the day, many of them without any explanation, Morar said.

About 320 other opposition activists were detained or taken off trains and buses on their way to Moscow, she said. Some were kept in detention cells, she said, while others were released after the rally was over.

Yevgeny Gildeyev, spokesman for the Moscow police said some 8,500 law enforcement officers were deployed in the city on Saturday. He said he did not know how many opposition activists were detained.

Russia's often fractious opposition has faced increased harassment in recent years, especially after protests led to the toppling of governments in the former Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine.

Authorities have banned meetings on dubious legal grounds, while party congresses have been broken up or canceled for no reason.
Sadly, the slide to less freedom of expression and democratic participation seems set for the next period in Russia. The public has become fearful of chaos, and of the threat to the heartland of the Chechen radicals.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Thousands rally against Russian government
Russian riot police dominate Moscow rally

Tags: Russian pro-democracy protesters

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Politics: Canada: Conservs may hold off election call to introduce a new Enviro policy, other parties show sharp green teeth

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Toronto Star's Susan Delacourt reports "Green plan needs work: Harper -- It's `reason I'd like to keep governing,' PM says, amid growing vote speculation" (Dec15,2k6).

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper has acknowledged that his environmental plan needs more time and more work and that he's not eager for the opposition to provoke an election early in 2007.

"Putting this in place is major, probably the biggest single industrial initiative we've had in the history of this country. It's going to take a few months to finish," Harper told reporters at a hastily called news conference on Parliament Hill last night. "That's part of the reason I'd like to keep governing, to finish it."

The initial unrolling of the Conservative environmental plan has been widely criticized as inadequate and it's expected that a "relaunch" is set for the new year, perhaps with a cabinet shuffle to put a greener hue on Harper's government.

Harper said he didn't want to talk about cabinet shuffle "speculation," but he did say he agreed with criticism from former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who told CBC Radio this week that the current Tory environmental plan needs improvement — "substantively and `presentationally.'"
North America > Canada
"I actually agree with what he said. What he said was that the Liberals have a dreadful record on the environment and the Conservative government can do better," Harper said.

The Prime Minister displayed annoyance with suggestions his minority government may fall over a non-confidence vote on the Afghanistan mission. La Presse reported yesterday the Bloc Québécois is ready to provoke that vote on Feb. 15 — barely a year since the Jan. 23 election.

Harper said that Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe is simply worried about letting the Tories unveil a budget later in February or in the spring, because it could contain measures that make the Tories attractive to Quebecers.

"I think, very simply, Mr. Duceppe is looking for an excuse to call an election before we table a budget," Harper said.
Environment Politics > 5-way fite Canada
Using the Afghanistan mission, Harper said, flies in the face of Canada's "moral obligation" to the troops and Parliament's previous commitment — expressed in a controversial vote earlier this year — to extend the Afghan mission until 2009.

"Parliament has voted. Our government is not going to stand back here and play political games. What kind of politician would do that?" Harper said.

"What kind of person would sit around the cabinet table, vote to send our troops, our young men and women, into the most dangerous province, in probably the most dangerous country in the world, and then a few months later say `well, I'm not sure whether they should be there.' We have a moral obligation to stand behind these people as they do what we asked them to do."

The Prime Minister said he is enjoying his job and is not keen to leave it.

But, he said, he suspects that new Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion isn't going to wait long for an election.

"I'm not asking for an election. I don't know what the reason for an election would be. But as you know, Mr. Dion, his first words as Liberal leader were `have an election' and he's made it pretty clear that's where he's thinking of going. So I can assure you if that occurs ... we will be ready and certainly we will be sending all kinds of signals that we are ready."
Harper is girding his loins for an election that will be forced by the Libs' Old-Guard-turned-green, under the baton of Stephan Dion who's busy stealing the green thunder from the New Democrats and the Greens themselves. Harper has to bend and will do so if given the time.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

How the NDP can help colour Harper green

Federal cabinet shuffle expected --
New environment minister likely as Conservatives seek greener look.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Economics: Taxes: Analyst Matthew Ladner says best anti-poverty prograqm is low taxes, low govt spending

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"Want to reduce poverty? Lower those tax rates." says Matthew Ladner Christian Science Monitor (Dec15,2k6). He writes, "Building a strong economy – and helping the poor – means keeping taxes and government spending low."

PHOENIX – When the US government ended "welfare as we know it" in 1996, it handed responsibility for reform to the states. In so doing, it also created a real-world test of two competing economic strategies used to fight poverty. The results are in and the lessons are clear: Low tax rates lift up the lives of America's poor.

Many people argue that government can reduce poverty by "redistributing" wealth through progressive taxation - imposing higher tax rates on higher income brackets - and through more government spending.

Most economists, however, say the best way to reduce poverty is through stronger economic growth. Growth means more jobs, a surefire antipoverty plan. Building a strong economy means keeping taxes and government spending low.

A study published last month by the Goldwater Institute, "How to Win the War on Poverty: An Analysis of State Poverty Trends," tests these different theories by examining state poverty rates from 1990 to 2000.

Nationwide, states took great strides in reducing both general and childhood poverty. Poverty fell by 5.3 percent and childhood poverty by 9.4 percent. Some states, however, reduced poverty much more than others, while some states suffered large increases.

Take Colorado. It reduced its childhood poverty rate by almost 27 percent. Meanwhile, Rhode Island's childhood poverty rate increased by almost the same amount. What accounts for those differences?
World Economy: USA Poverty & Political Economy
Using data from the Census Bureau, the report found that states with the lowest tax rates enjoyed sizable decreases in poverty. For example, the 10 states with the lowest total state and local tax burdens saw an average poverty reduction of 13 percent - two times better than the national average. The 10 highest-tax states, meanwhile, suffered an average increase in poverty of 3 percent.

Some high-tax states, such as California, Hawaii, and New York, suffered catastrophic increases in poverty. As California began to reject the low-tax legacy of the Reagan governorship, the state's poverty rate jumped 13 percent in the 1990s.

Some will be quick to dismiss this as a consequence of illegal immigration. But lower-tax border states such as Arizona and Texas had substantial declines in poverty while also experiencing large increases in immigration.

In fact, California's high taxation has been so damaging to the economy that another increase like the one in the 1990s would result in poverty exceeding Mississippi's by 2010.

When a state has a low tax burden, economic growth is stronger. Economic growth delivers more job creation and higher per capita and median family incomes. Economic growth is a powerful means to pull people out of poverty.

Although some policymakers justify high taxes for the sake of the poor, the data show that higher taxes and related spending do little to reduce poverty rates. Rather, states with healthy economic climates have much more success in lifting people out of poverty.

The causes of, and solutions to, poverty are complex, but one policy is clear: Low tax rates are a significant factor in achieving the universal goal of poverty reduction.

Matthew Ladner is vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute, a public policy organization in Phoenix.
First time I've heard of Goldwater Institute, and I'm not in a position to challenge any of the facts alleged in this article. But it is different from what the Goudzwaard school of reformational Christian economics puts forward. There's a big gap between the two analyses, and that gap suggests a great difference in political economic horizons. Whatever further difference that suggests between refWrite's economic horizon and that of Goudzwaard's reformed/protestant version of the "preferential option for the poor" (Vatican II), Ladner's article is worth the serious attention of Christian economists. Goudzwaardians radically criticize economic growth, while never facing the world's poor's birthrates. As long as too many kids arrive without hope of rising out of poverty, growth will be necessary in order ameliorate the consequences of ever-multiplying population statistics. Ladner's ideas must be factored into the equation.

--Owlb

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Politics: Canada: Harper's new plan for Canadian Senate, Old Guard objects

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Ottawa Citizen carries a report by Allan Woods, 'A new era in Canadian democracy'Harper unveils legislation for Senate changes; critics deride plan as a quick-fix 'gimmick' (Dec14,2k6).

Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched the first strike in his re-election campaign, tabling legislation yesterday to consult Canadians on Senate appointments and lauding the achievements of his government as its first session of Parliament drew to a close.

The prime minister, in an address to the Conservative party caucus, said his proposed Senate changes will ask Canadians who they would like to represent their province in the upper chamber, a move he said would usher in "a new era in Canadian democracy."

"After a century-and-a-half, democracy will finally come to the Senate of Canada," said Mr. Harper, who has already introduced legislation to limit the terms of senators to eight years.

"This bill will see voters choose their preferred candidates to represent their provinces or territories."

The government envisions Canadians completing a Senate ballot to fill vacancies when they go to the polls in federal elections, which are normally held every four years.

The vacancies will be filled as the current crop of appointed senators retires.

"The prime minister, under the present system, can consult with no one. ... We are choosing to consult with provinces on a provincewide basis and we think that's a better way," said government House leader Rob Nicholson.

"This expands the group of individuals that the prime minister consults with for a Senate appointment."

Opposition parties are already raising doubts about the legitimacy of the Conservative party's major election commitment.

They described the legislation as a half-measure and a quick-fix "gimmick."

There exists a widely held belief that it will not pass into law and will become an issue in the next election, expected early in 2007.
But Harper is quoted today as not planning to call a Spring 2007 election.
"I think what the prime minister wants to do is completely irresponsible," said Liberal leader Stephane Dion.

Liberals believe Parliament should first deal with the underrepresentation of British Columbia and Alberta, which have six seats each in the Senate, as opposed to Nova Scotia's 10 seats, despite its smaller population. Those changes can only occur with changes to the Constitution and with the support of provincial premiers.

"The resolution of Senate reform is more than (fixed) terms, more than a consultative process," said Senator Dan Hays, the leader of the Liberals in the Senate. "I guess the real question is can that be done in a realistic way without engaging the provinces. At this point, I'll reserve judgment, but I have grave doubts."

Already, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell has come out against the bill, saying matters of provincial representation should be dealt with first, or the Senate should be abolished altogether. Quebec Premier Jean Charest said he wanted to study the legislation "very closely" before passing judgment on it.
Charest has since come out against the Harper proposal
Mr. Charest's intergovernmental affairs minister, Benoit Pelletier, has said previously that major Senate changes affecting the provinces should proceed through formal constitutional amendments.

The Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party believe the Senate should be abolished and will likely vote against the legislation.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Breaking News: Jerusalem: Excommunicate rabbis who went to Iran, says a Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger

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Watch our page 2 for updates on the story of the rabbis who joined in the "devate" in Tehran, questioning the Holocaust. Now, the Chief Rabbi of European-background Jewry in Israel, has called for excommunication of the Tehran Conference rabbis. Jerusalem Post, posted > Dec. 14, 2006 0:12 Jerusalem Time.

MidEast > Israel

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger called late Wednesday to "excommunicate" the rabbis who participated in a two-day conference in Iran dedicated to examining the "truth" of the Holocaust.
This development, in regard to both the rabbis going to Tehran in the first place, and now this move toward their excommunication, still astounds me. I can't understand the motives of the renegade rabbis, and I certainly can understand the excommunicaton call of the Chief Rabbi (Israel has two chief rabbis, one for the European-background Ashenazis and one for the Arabic and MidEastern Jews, the Sephardim.

Regarding the Tehran rabbis, I'll certainly be looking for a Kirschner cartoon from Israel on this one.

--Politicarp

More Info::

KKK's David Duke Tells Iran Holocaust Conference That Gas Chambers Not Used to Kill Jews "Among the 67 participants from 30 countries, who included some of Europe's most prominent Holocaust deniers, were two rabbis and four other members of the fringe group Jews United Against Zionism."

Iranian forum on Holocaust 'beyond belief'

Haredi Jews who attended Holocaust conference in Tehran express support for Ahmadinejad's ideas.


Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Iran: AntiSemitism: Loaded 'debate' regarding the Holocaust in Tehran full of antiSemites from West

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New York Times (click this blog-entry's headline above) and International Herald Tribune writer Christine Hauser "Conference in Iran to debate Holocaust sparks outrage" (Dec12,2k6) properly expose Iranian insult at just the moment Liberals and the US Iraq Study Group propose talks with Iran (and Syria). The response must be No! "Blair calls conference in Iran 'shocking'":

A gathering in Iran billed as a conference to "debate" the Holocaust continued to spark outrage Tuesday, drawing fierce criticism from Western leaders.

The conference in Tehran, which began Monday, has attracted Holocaust deniers from around the world who made presentations questioning the historical record of the Holocaust, including whether Nazi Germany used gas chambers to exterminate millions of Jews and other "undesirables."

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany condemned the conference Tuesday and said Germany would never accept it. Germany also summoned the Iranian chargé d'affaires in Berlin to express its anger over the conference.

In several European countries, including Germany, denial of the Holocaust is a crime.

While many Western countries have recently urged that Iran and Syria be included in negotiations to deal with conflicts in the region, including the violence in Iraq, some have pointed to the conference as indicative of the extremist nature of the current Iranian government.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has frequently voiced a view held by many in the Muslim world that the crimes of the Nazis were exaggerated to justify giving Palestinian land to Jews, ultimately leading to the creation of Israel.

Iran held a contest over the summer for cartoons about the Holocaust, in reaction to a controversy over cartoons published in Denmark that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad.
MidEast > Iran
The White House said that it recognized that not everyone in Iran agreed with the most extreme elements in the regime there, and that the United States would stand with those who sought "to overcome oppression, injustice and tyranny."

During his monthly news conference Tuesday, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain held out little hope of engaging Iran in constructive action in the Middle East and expressed revulsion at the Holocaust conference, calling it "shocking beyond belief."

"It's not that I'm against the concept of reaching out to people," Blair was quoted by Reuters as saying, in a reference to efforts to include Iran in peace efforts. "The trouble is, I look around the region at the moment, and everything that Iran is doing is negative."

Calling the Holocaust an "immense tragedy" for humanity, the Vatican issued a statement admitting of no doubt that the mass murder of Jews took place. The statement used the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, Shoah, and expressed "great compassion" for what happened to the Jews of Europe during World War II, according to Agence France-Presse.

The White House said in a statement that the gathering of Holocaust deniers in Tehran was an "affront to the entire civilized world, as well as to the traditional Iranian values of tolerance and mutual respect."

Franco Frattini, vice president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, expressed "shock" that the conference had been convened.

The French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, also condemned the gathering.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said that 67 people from 30 countries were participating in the two days of meetings.

On Monday, Rasoul Mousavi, head of the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies, said it would provide an opportunity to discuss the Holocaust "away from Western taboos and the restriction imposed on them in Europe."
Iran has become simultaneously a wicked cesspool of danger to the world, and a laffingstock that can only feed the juices of hyperbole and mockery from comedians and satirists the world over.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Holocaust conference in Iran: Aljazeera offers more balance than National Public Radio (NPR) reporter, objective coverage from most other international media

Iranian Christians arrested 2 days before Holocaust-deniers conference [a weird by interesting viewpoint].

Sunday, December 10, 2006

War: MidEast Regional War: Private Saudi citizens funding Iraqi insurgents

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Saudi Arabian citizens are sending zadkat contributions over the border into Iraq to help finance the Sunni insurgents who have three targets: 1.) Shia insurgent death squads, 2.) Iraqi military, and 3.) US troops. The main target is definitively the Shia sectarian forces (not the Iraqi military), some of the Shia being members of the militias (SCIRRI's and Maoqtada Sadr's, both of which have political wings represented in the Iraqi Parliament). The Saudi govt ostensibly is opposed to the flow of zadkat monies being used in this way, but the pressure on certain Sunni Saudis to support fellow sectarians in Iraq has in its background profound fear the Shia militias and irregulars, the Shia-dominated govt are in league with and are coming increasingly into the orbit of Iranian expansionism -- which clearly seeks now to dominate the entire Persian Gulf region as its own lake.

At the same time, Iran, while furthering its interests in Iraq, is very much holding onto its influence on Syria, and is using Syria as a client state in the Iranian effort to deploy the Shia terrorists of Hizbullah with their political apparatus (and the renegade Christian party Amal) to marshall huge Shia crowds in Beirut to force the govt of Fouad Siniora (Sunni) and his Christian allies to fall. Iran wants control from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. But in Iraq, it is being resisted by both the Coalition of the Willing and the Iraqi military which is staffed by both Arab Sunnis and Kurdish Sunnis, tho the majority are, again, Shia. Thus, the loyalty of the Iraqi military is not without its own problems.

Returning to Lebanon, where the Shia Hizbullah/Amal have placed the Sunni govt, with its Christian allies, under the siege of huge demonstrations, the battle for Beirut continues Simon Tisdall. "Iran vs Saudis in battle of Beirut" (Dec5,2k6) Guardian UK. And it is the same forces, Shia Hizbullah in Lebanon and Shia govt in Iran who back the Shia terrorist organization Hamas in Palestine. Mamoud Abbas, President of the Palestiniain Authority on the other hand, is a Sunni who backs Palestine's path forward to peace with Israel (Private Saudi citizens fuding Iraqi insurgents by Tom Regan (Dec8.2k6) Christian Science Monitor:

Riyadh is indirectly confronting Tehran in Palestine, where [the Saudi govt] supports President Mahmoud Abbas against the Iranian-backed Hamas, and in Lebanon, where it is bankrolling the Siniora government.

But the key battleground is Iraq. The Saudis fear that a failure of the US there would confirm the country's domination by Iran, jeopardize the survival of Iraq's Sunni minority and upset political and religious power balances along the entire western Gulf littoral. "Since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave uninvited," a Saudi government adviser, Nawaf Obaid, told the Washington Post, quoting Prince Turki al-Faisal. "If it does, one of the first consequences will be a massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shia militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis."
An AP report via International Herald Tribune confirms the non-govt funding for Iraq's Sunnis "Officials say Saudis major provider of finance to Iraqi Sunni insurgents" (Dec7,26).

These definite developments have been long in coming but are very real, altho they do not mesh with the rabid blame-game practiced at home and abroad, by Americans and by defnite enemies of America who have another purpose than clarifying the situation. One such is Sami Ramdani, "Iraq: not civil war, but occupation" (Dec8,2k6) openDemocracy.

But of course this is the line that Iran markets to the world, a line bawt by Prez Bush's Iran Study Group and its former members, now USA Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates (Gates' shocking thinking on Iran (Dec6,2k6) Jerusalem Post.
Gates's first instinct when asked about Iran's potential nuclear capability is not to explain why he views such a prospect as inimical to US interests, but why it might not be such a dangerous thing.

Gates assures us that although Ahmadinejad may be wacko, his Iranian leadership higher-ups have got to be more responsible. These moderate, reasonable, Iranian leaders, Gates calmly explains, have perfectly understandable reasons to want nukes to defend themselves. Not to worry, it's just the Cold War Iranian-style. Israel, the US, and Pakistan have nukes, why not Iran?
And on the latter article's second page:
Gates has now made the case for tolerating an Iranian nuclear weapon and against taking military action to prevent that eventuality. In doing so, he elicited no discernible alarm from his Senatorial inquisitors.

We wish one of them had pointed out that an Iranian nuclear weapon would dramatically increase both Teheran's capability to inflict increasing damage against US interests and the likelihood of Iran doing just that. Now it falls to President Bush to reveal whether Gates's thinking reflects his own, or whether he is still committed to preventing the world's most dangerous regime from obtaining the world's most dangerous weapons.
This is the wisdom that presumably advances US understanding and interests in the MidEast. Is Gates the best Bush can do?

-- Politicarp

Further Info:

"Iran sets conditions for talks with U.S. on Iraq" by Mohammed Abbas (Dec9,2k6) WaPo">

Regime Change Iran picks up the same article by Abbas

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Calendar: R+ts: International Human R+ts Day is observed Sunday, December 10, this year

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I would have been cawt unawares had I not noticed that the new Speaker of the House of Representatives USA, Nancy Pelosi. Glad to see she's on the ball in keeping this observance. She says:

"This Sunday, we recognize International Human Rights Day, an opportunity to renew our call to protect and uphold the principles and ideals on which our country was founded. On this day, we must recommit our promise to protect and promote human rights around the world. We must take action to stop the genocide in Darfur, promote human rights in China, and eradicate extreme poverty and disease in the developing world.

"On this meaningful day, we must take time to remember the genocide in Darfur and pledge to redouble our efforts to bring this horror to an end. We cannot stand idly by as the Sudanese government continues its systematic destruction of the people of Darfur. We are compelled by the conscience of the world to put an end to this humanitarian disaster.

"It is fitting that this day also marks the 17th anniversary of his Holiness the Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. The Dalai Lama has made the human rights situation in Tibet an issue of international concern. Under Chinese occupation, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have died and religious and political expressions are severely curtailed. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has asked for international support for his efforts to engage the Chinese government. As global citizens, we must double our efforts to bring freedom to the Chinese and Tibetan people.

"This year the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has declared poverty as one of the gravest human rights challenges of our time. We cannot ignore the inextricable links between poverty and the breakdown of human rights. Access to food, health care, and education, opportunities for income, and freedom from discrimination should be universally known as the most basic human rights.

"On International Human Rights Day we recommit ourselves to protecting and promoting human rights around the world."

Global Horizons> Human R+ts & Poverty

Linking human r+ts to the condition of poverty of so many wordwide will not make it any easier to overcome poverty on that massive scale, and neither will reformational Christian economist Bob Goudzwaard's "norms vs goals" distinction: if the sheer reproductive demograpics of world population is not realistically taken into account. I fawlt both Pelosi and Goudzwaard (and their legions) for not putting first the dire need for stablizing the number of people and working to prevent the expanding number of births on the planet, as a failure that makes all their anti-poverty lamentations trivial.

China's One Child Policy doesn't seem to be any answer for that society's poverty, and the gender imbalance created resultantly by having too many males arriving in the oncoming generations (because of abortion of so many females in utero in China these days) that too has its dark demonic side. China sees the problem but doesnt have a normative answer. But neither is howling against poverty without calling for reduction of number of births in the third world, providing the means to reduce them by birth control a solution to massive world poverty and the advance of human r+ts which suffer along with so much of life for those in a condition of permanent poverty, often lifelong. Markedly valuable in overcoming the world's mass poverty would certainly be the unblocking of acces to condoms in the third world.

This specific move, regarding which Tony Blair has had the courage to challenge the Pope (but only in the fite against AIDs), is an extremely important feature of prevention of overburdening the world with children who will be born into poverty and the vast majority of whom will continue in poverty for the rest of their lives. Use of condoms mass-poverty societies with h+ birthrates is normative. Papal doctrine is wrong, and hurtful, and devastating to the world's poor, especially its Catholics in poverty.

Along with speaking up so clearly for Darfur and Tibet, Speaker Pelosi, a Catholic, and economist Bob Goudzawaard, a Protestant, should be calling on Church, State and the mass populations living and reproducing in stark poverty, calling on them to practice birth control so that the number of poor is not being added to. Otherwise the goals of the UN Millenium Devleopment Goals "are impossible to meet," as a study group of the British Parliament has been reported on Dec8,2k6.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Human R+ts & Overpopulation

Overpopulation [Wikipedia]

The Myth of Overpopulation and the Folks who brawt it to you[Catholic Bishops position by Austin Ruse - a most unsatisfactory treatment aimed at abortion, not the condom ban, not poverty]

Tags: R+ts poverty overpopulation

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Politics: Ethics: Gmarriage displaces marriage in Canada--for any foreseeable future

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Yesterday, refWrite referenced a CBC gender/sex-factored 1woman1man. Gmarriage as a public-legal displacement-definition obscures the specificity of the gender/sex-factor in the intimate union of 1woman1man across their difference. This is not true of either lesbian intimate union nor of 2men intimate union.

So, the shift of public-legal definition, first by Canada's courts all the way to its Supreme Court, and now by the House of Commons, renders marriage de-conceptualized into the impoverished notion of gmarriage > generic marriage > so-called "same-sex marriage" which latter term erases the very specificity in difference between lesbian intimate union and 2males intimate union. The final transition has been from " 'same-sex' marriage " to the clever "equal marriage." All the shifts in the terminology have led to a most moronic outcome.

Instead of so-called "same-sex marriage" or "equal marriage," refWrite has been expressing for years now, the tripartite analysis of three main kinds of intimate union, each of such unions characterized by mutual and reciprocal vows / promises / statements / assertions of exclusivity between two adult people [before God] to form a distinct specific instance of a societal sphere of intimate union, probably sexually expresive between the two within that unity but not necessarily-sexually expressive and not necessarily intending to reproduce a further generation of family line/s according to the idolatrous absolutization of consanguinity and congenicity which as constitutes the natural-family model

[family, when it occurs, most often intersects marriage, as family and intimate union in its sphere sovereignty are not identical...this last kind of marriage is that traditionally favoured by Western governments and had been for centuries--a certain type of marriage/family intersection that has been given a priority for state-support, a type among all kinds and types of marriages and families as related to the general reproductivity of the overall number of members of a society, and their gender/sex factor-distribution ...the problem is that in Canada we are confused about the huge shift in demographics going on according to several parameters of which lesbian and 2men intimate unions, some of each with children and thus a demographic intersection of marriages and families of tremendous weit to each particular Western society (note how China has solved this very problem with its Only One Child policy over the years]
Thus the three kinds of intimate union are 2women marriage > 2men marriage > 1woman1man marriage. The consanguinous, congenetic type of intersection or hybridization of marriage with family (2 parents, child/ren a pluraiity of which relate as siblings).

I realize I am rambling, but can't pause to thoroly sort out the energing loose ends of the theory I'm working on, certainly not in all its interconnections, here. So I move on to the news of the day for which the theorizing serves as some sort of framework for interpretation: "MPs defeat bid to reopen same-sex marriage debate -- Motion tabled by Tories falls 175-123" (Dec7,2k6) CBC News:
A motion to reopen the same-sex marriage debate was easily defeated in Parliament on Thursday, as expected.

MPs voted 175-123 against the controversial motion tabled by the ruling Conservatives.

The motion had asked the government to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages.

The Liberal and Conservative parties allowed their members to vote freely, and there were some surprises.

Twelve Tories — including cabinet ministers Peter MacKay, David Emerson, John Baird, Jim Prentice, Lawrence Cannon and Josée Verne — broke from party lines and voted against the motion.
Morals, mores, manners
This blog-entry will be moved to rW2
"It was simply a matter that I felt had received fair discussion and airing in the House of Commons and other venues, and I feel there are other pressing matters before the Canadian people and certainly before this chamber right now," MacKay said after the vote.

Most Liberals present gave the motion the thumbs down. Among them were Joe Comuzzi, who gave up his cabinet post in 2005 so he could vote against a same-sex marriage bill proposed by the Liberal government.

Thirteen Liberals supported the motion.

All Bloc Québécois and NDP members present voted against Thursday's motion, as their party leaders had directed.

Since Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a free vote — promised during January's general election campaign — would settle the matter, the vote should put an end to parliamentary wrangling about same-sex marriage.

"We made a promise to have a free vote on this issue; we kept that promise, and obviously the vote was decisive and obviously we'll accept the democratic result of the people's representatives," Harper said Thursday following the vote. "I don't see reopening this question in the future."

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said Harper must now accept defeat.

"It was the wrong move to question the rights of the people and to try to override the Charter [of . He must not be very proud of that."
Victory bittersweet, activist says

Laurie Arron, national co-ordinator for Canadians for Equal Marriage, said the victory is bittersweet.

He said he's pleased the vote was defeated, and by such a large margin, but it's unfortunate the issue came up at all. He said he and others already fought hard to have same-sex marriages legalized in Canada in 2005.

"I'm relieved that we're not going to have to fight this battle again," he told CBC News Online. "This issue's been debated to death. I'm glad today it's finally laid to rest."

Same-sex marriage became legal in Canada last year when the Liberal government passed Bill C-38 in response to a series of court rulings that said gays had the right to marry.

That bill passed 158-133.

Thirty-two Liberals voted against it, while 95 supported it. Only three Conservatives gave the bill the thumbs up.
Thursday's motion hollow, Liberals say

Liberals called this most recent motion hollow because, even if it had passed, it would not have struck down the right of gays to marry.

Most constitutional lawyers have said the only way the Tories could change the law would be to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, something Harper has said he would not do.

Charles McVety, head of the conservative Canada Family Action Coalition which is opposed to same-sex marriage, said his group will not give up the fight.

"The people of Canada are not going to let this go, because marriage is too important an institution to just let it evaporate because of the emotions of a few people in Parliament," he told a news conference.
--Owlb

Further Research:

House votes not to reopen same-sex marriage issue

A vote Harper doesn't want to win
ANALYSIS: A same-sex defeat blunts a Liberal arrow from the campaign quiver [Brian Laghi]

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Politics: Gmarriage: The destruction of marriage as a unique inimate union of its own kind recognized at law continues in Canada

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CBC News (Dec6,2k6) reports "Opposition MPs grill government on same-sex marriage," the re-vote regarding which is scheduled for tomorrow.

Opposition MPs demanded Wednesday to know why the Conservative government insists on reopening the controversial debate over same-sex marriage.

The demand came as MPs debated a Conservative motion to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage while respecting existing same-sex marriages.

Stéphane Dion said his decision to allow Liberal MPs to vote their conscience will prevent Stephen Harper from saying 'Dion prevented his MPs from voting freely.'Stéphane Dion said his decision to allow Liberal MPs to vote their conscience will prevent Stephen Harper from saying 'Dion prevented his MPs from voting freely.'
(CBC)

"What is the crisis that the government is responding to?" NDP member Bill Siksay asked at the start of the debate in the House of Commons.

"Is there any documentation showing there is a crisis in marriage?"

Conservative House leader Rob Nicholson was quick to contradict him, saying he made the same argument when the Liberal government moved to legalize same-sex marriage across Canada in 2005.

"I raised that point exactly one year ago," Nicholson said. "What was the rush to change the traditional definition of marriage?"
Continue Article

The Conservative motion is not expected to pass on Thursday. The Bloc and NDP are telling their MPs to vote against it.
Liberal MPs allowed to vote freely

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion announced Wednesday afternoon, just before the debate began, that he will allow his MPs to vote freely on the motion.

Most are expected to oppose it, just as they did in 2005 when the government adopted Bill C-38, which legalized same-sex marriage in Canada.

Only 32 Liberals voted against C-38, while 95 voted for it.
North America > Canada


Like the Liberals, Conservatives will also be allowed to vote freely on Thursday. In 2005, only three Tory MPs supported C-38.

Dion, elected as leader on Saturday, said he wants Liberals to vote as they choose because it will send a strong message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"There will be a free vote to prove that an overwhelming majority of my MPs are not willing to vote with the government on this issue," Dion said before the debate.

"We want that to be over…. It will be the end of the story."

Before the debate on Wednesday, Tory MP Bev Oda said she voted against C-38 and she plans to vote for the Conservative motion on Thursday.

"I will be consistent with the issue," she said.
'I don't think there's any harm'

Conservative MP James Moore is voting against reopening the issue. He said he would only vote for the motion if he felt same-sex marriage was causing public harm.

"And I don't think there's any harm in allowing two people [of the same sex] who want to live in a loving, monogamous relationship … to do so," he said before the debate.

Dion said if there were a vote in the future to change the same-sex law, he would tell his MPs to vote along party lines. That vote should not arise, he added, provided the current motion about revisiting the law is defeated Thursday.

Thursday's vote stems from a promise Harper made leading up to the January 2006 election. He told voters he would hold a free vote on the issue.
Canada continues with its poorly conceptualized displacement of marriage by redefining it to include everybody and nobody. The new provision for so-called "same-sex marriage" will stand--tho the proposed replacement provisions would establish "civil unions" for 2women intimate unions, and also for 2men intimate unions.

--Owlb

Politics: Coup: SouthWest Pacific island-state of Fiji undergoes coup, dismissing constitutional government

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For some weeks, the government of the Island of Fiji in the SouthWest Pacific region which includes Tonga and the Grand Solomons islands as well, and New Zealand and Australia. From that last-named country, I learned of the reformational Christian editor of Fiji Daily Times and his approach to the crisis of state swirling thru Fiji society, culture and public-justice polity. In learning about the editor and following some of his newspaper writings in the micro-state, I also was kept informed of his doings by sociology-philosopher Dr Bruce Wearne of Australia; keeping abreast of his work on this news-theme by means of his posts to Thinknet, a service for and by Christian intellectuals.

The recent news now at hand from the mainstream press is not good news.

"Fiji coup leader consolidates power, warns against resistance" (Dec6,2k6) Boston Herald carrying an AP dispatch:

SUVA, Fiji - The military ruler who led a coup against Fiji’s elected government forcibly dissolved the South Pacific island’s parliament Wednesday, installed a new prime minister and warned that he could use force against dissenters.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama, leader of the country’s fourth coup in 19 years, also dismissed the country’s police chief, who had publicly opposed him.

Armed troops entered Parliament and demanded senators end budget deliberations that had resumed despite the government’s ouster. Bainimarama said he had formally dissolved the legislature.

Deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase remained defiant but subdued, agreeing to a military demand that he leave the capital to avoid becoming a rallying point for Bainimarama opponents. He insisted he was still the country’s only legal ruler.

But the capital, Suva, remained largely quiet, a day after Bainimarama seized power to end a long impasse with Qarase over legislation offering pardons to conspirators in a 2000 coup and handing lucrative coastal land ownership to the indigenous Fijian majority.

Bainimarama swore in military medic Dr. Jona Senilagakali as interim prime minister and, in a nationally broadcast address, said he had declared a state of emergency because intelligence indicated some people were planning civil disturbances.
SouthWest Pacific > Fiji
Under the emergency declaration, a security cordon was to be set up around Suva and all military reservists brought to barracks for duty supporting the regime, he said.

“For those who do not agree with what we are doing, we respect your opinion, but do not interfere with the process that is currently under way,” Bainimarama said. “Should we be forced to use force, let me state that we will do so very quickly.”

He said the military wanted a peaceful transition to an interim administration and, eventually, elections that would restore democracy.

“There is no point in debating the legality or otherwise of our actions,” he said. “Qarase and his cronies are not coming back.”

Bainimarama accused Qarase of inciting people to rise against the military by declaring the takeover illegal.

“I am still the legal prime minister of the country,” Qarase told the Legend radio network from his home village on the outlying Lau islands. “There is no way the interim prime minister is going to be a legal prime minister, absolutely no way.”

Bainimarama replaced Police Commissioner Moses Driver after the official earlier told his officers to disregard any orders from the military, whose actions he said were “treasonous.”

“The regime that they have put in place is illegal,” Driver said. “The Fiji police will not now, or ever, have any part of it.”

Military spokesman Maj. Neumi Leweni said that five other senior bureaucrats, including the solicitor-general and public service commissioner, had been fired.
Please watch this blog-entry for updates.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

coming
coming

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Politics: UN Security Council: Countries with 'veto powers' + Germany seeking resolution on sanctions against Iran

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"UN veto powers" is an expression I came across in the article below, and misread its meaning on a first try. In a split-second, comprehension devolved into momentary semantic confusion. I had to stop the onward course, and re-read "UN veto powers" so that I could actually understand the intended meaning of the compact expression. But, the neologistic phrase itself does not ascribe any "veto powers" to the UN itself. Rather, the neologism refers to a certain set of nations which are Permanent Members of the Security Council of the UN and, thus, hold veto powers in regard to any proposed Security Council resolution or action. In this case, the neologism refers to a certain subsubset of UN members, distinctive because they each hold a veto power over UN Security Council resolutions or actions. Germany is presently a Member of the SecCoun, but does not hold veto powers over resolutions.

News item "UN veto powers and Germany fail to agree on Iran sanctions" (Dec5,2k6), M&NewsC:

Paris - There was still no agreement on imposing UN sanctions against Iran for its continued nuclear programme, following a meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany in Paris Tuesday evening.

The French Foreign Ministry said that there had been clear progress towards a UN resolution and that discussions would continue.

France, Germany and Britain have produced a draft Security Council resolution that is backed by the US and seeks punitive measures against Iran, which has refused international demands to halt uranium enrichment. Russia and China have so far opposed sanctions.

The statement by the French ministry said the six nations were close to finalizing an agreement, but that a number of issues remained open.

The US and others have accused Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists its programme is entirely peaceful."

--The above is © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
I found the article to be quite helpful in relating certain complex elements influencing where the various leading countries stand, as to the issues of concern in the artcle. The central question being where do you stand on trusting Iran regarding its intended purpose in obtain the technical power to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes only.

In closing this blog-entry, I note only that Germany's policy on Iran sanctions is the product of a Christian-Democratic government in coalition with the previous governing party, Social Democratic Party (minus the SDP's former leader of course--what was his name?). How this policy was formed must have been a fascinating process of debate, change of minds, and resoluton to an authentic and principled compromise from the original positions of each party.

Principled compromise ... but not the absolute truth, not absolutely r+t and all deviations wrong, not necessarily forever.

That's how I fantasize the way the responsible ministers of govt of Germany reached their policy position in the UN Security Council. However, I don't share in the approach of Germany (CDU and all). I simply do not trust the mullocrats who dominate Iran's civil order. I think they're largely a lot of dissemblers who are secretly committed to nuking Israel, thus to gain the international admiration of Muslims thru-out the world in the grand battle of Shi'ism vs Sunnism (of which Al Quaeda is the militant version of Wahabbist Sunni orthodoxy rooted in Saudi Arabia and by conversion of the Taliban to Wahhabism, also in Afghanistan). In the end, this main intra-Islamic sectarian conflict is the war for control of Mecca.
Tags: UN Security Council on Iran sanctions